Koneva said public opinion in Russia increasingly seems resigned to a longer-term war. Throughout the war, researchers have been trying to understand what factors would reduce public support in Russia. Koneva said researchers found that people in this group, the largest single segment of the population, have contradictory attitudes toward the war, consisting of narratives from both sides of the conflict.
- Also, prices for some ordinary things, like cosmetics and food, have doubled, but in many cases, we have no alternative because there are no factories here that produce those products.
- For the record, they don’t support the war in general, they do want it to stop; however, they can justify it in their heads somehow.
- But the problem with measuring public opinion in a country under authoritarian rule and censorship, Botchkovar says, is that the data are highly imperfect.
- He is not a bright leader, and not the tyrant that the opposition paints him as, but he is definitely not the best thing that could happen to Russia.
- Volkov says these polls are conducted face-to-face, and people are assured of anonymity.
What do Russians make of their country’s invasion of Ukraine? It is no easy matter to conduct opinion polls in Russia at the best of times, sampling views from St Petersburg to Siberia. Right now though, Russian people are not free to express their opinions anyway, with a new law in place making it a criminal offence to say anything about the Ukraine conflict which the authorities consider untrue. Jenny Hill is in Moscow, and has been keeping her ear to the ground.
Russia Feels Provoked by Democracy and Loss of Empire
(These surveys were conducted before Mr Putin announced his mobilisation drive.) But these shocking figures are deceptive. Public opposition to the war can result in criminal prosecution, so people who are critical of the war and the regime are less likely to agree to speak to a pollster. This results in skewed samples and inflates the level of support for the war. Where I am, people typically express their opinion at rallies, on social networks and among their inner circle. Usually, people will spread the word about protests secretly.
I’m afraid they will announce a full mobilisation and take everyone. “Since we lived in Russia, the war affected us quite a lot. My mother and I were very afraid for our lives, so the decision was made to leave. Some teenagers have been arrested for sabotaging railways, sharing anti-war memes on social media, and taking part in peace rallies – although actual criminal charges for under-18s are relatively rare. Ukrainians held a positive view of the Russian people throughout this period and only turned against the Russian state and its president in 2014 in response to Putin’s aggression. As Bekeshkina has written, “In getting Crimea, Putin has lost Ukraine.” Putin’s war will only end when this fact is finally realized in Moscow.
What do Russians think of Putin's invasion of Ukraine?
For months, Russians of all political stripes tuned out American warnings that their country could soon invade Ukraine, dismissing them as an outlandish concoction in the West’s disinformation war with the Kremlin. But this week, after several television appearances by Mr. Putin stunned and scared some longtime observers, that sense of casual disregard turned to a deep unease. MOSCOW https://euronewstop.co.uk/where-has-ukraine-been-bombed.html Waiting for her friends on Moscow’s primly landscaped Boulevard Ring earlier this week, Svetlana Kozakova admitted that she’d had a sleepless night. She kept checking the news on her phone after President Vladimir V. Putin’s aggrieved speech to the nation on Monday that all but threatened Ukraine with war. This is the third version of the Kremlin’s original plan.
- The common thread, she says, is a deep distrust of the West, rooted in decades of state propaganda.
- The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 saw the return of major war to the European continent.
- In Pskov, near the Estonian and Latvian borders, the atmosphere is gloomy and everyone pretends the war has nothing to do with them, I am told.
- Not surprisingly, the major shift in opinion took place after 2014.
Under a bridge someone has daubed PEACE in big red letters. Hundreds of thousands of Russians have left Russia, including me and my BBC Russian colleagues. But for the majority who have stayed in Russia, life outwardly is pretty much the same as it always was. "Was Putin really going to start a war with Ukraine?" he asked. “Covid showed our ugly side, with people getting upset when all they were being asked to do was sit on the sofa at home,” said the former TA soldier.
But it recovered to 57% after three weeks in mid-October 2022. The most popular responses, a third of all telegrams, were expressions of sympathy, support and "calls to be patient until Russia releases them," and a "reminder of the brotherhood of the two peoples." Koneva said initially, when Russians heard about the damage and losses suffered by Ukrainians, Russian people looked more critically at the reason the Ukrainians were suffering. Galina Zapryanova, senior regional editor for the Gallup World Poll, told VOA that polling in Russia " has indeed become more challenging since 2022, but it is not impossible." “Analysts have learned to deal with and avoid authoritarian pressure,” said Koneva, founder of independent research agency ExtremeScan.
- Many who study and report on Russia, me included, believe a small percentage of people actively support the war, and a small percentage actively oppose it.
- (These surveys were conducted before Mr Putin announced his mobilisation drive.) But these shocking figures are deceptive.
- However, when it comes to family, I, unfortunately, do have a conflict with my parents.
- What we do know is that young Russians, unlike their elders, are growing up in an era of smartphones and social networks, and therefore have access to a wider range of information compared with what they are told about the war on state media.
- But everyone who wants to participate can easily find out about it.
The same thing with conferences – international events that take place in Moscow are all cancelled. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that the older generation is drowning in propaganda and believes that Putin’s actions are justified. Al Jazeera spoke with five young Russians about their views on the invasion, and how the blowback has affected them. Sanctions have targeted banks, oil refineries, military and luxury product exports as well as members of the Russian regime and oligarchs with close ties to the Kremlin. Companies, too, have closed their doors in Russia, including fast-food giant McDonald’s which has temporarily shut its roughly 850 outlets. In response, the US, EU, UK and other countries have levelled sanctions, both general and targeted, and doors have closed to Russians around the world, from research institutions to sporting events, in protest at Russia’s invasion.
- “The night of (the invasion), I was in a really great mood," recalls Ksenia. "My friend and I were celebrating February 23 (Day of the Defender of the Fatherland or, more commonly, Men’s Day).
- On the sixth day of the war in Ukraine, there have been more than 6,000 arrests at anti-war protests across Russia.
- Volkov found that some 80% of respondents do support the military, but that group is by no means a monolith.